Howdy Thedford Residents! Welcome to another view from a far off place known as Norway and the home to foreign exchange student Henriette Pedersen Rogne! Henriette is 17 years old and is a member of the senior class at Thedford High School. At home in Norway, Henriette's favorite subjects are English and Physical Education. Besides attending Upper Secondary School, Henriette spends her time working in a cafe called No. 3. She also enjoys working out at the gym where she participates in yoga/Pilates, goes spinning, or runs on the treadmill! When she was younger, Henriette also took Tae Kwon Do and graduated at age 11 with a Black Belt!
Travelling the world isn't something new for Henriette though. At age 11, she attended the Children's International Summer Village in Indonesia, Jakarta for 3 weeks where she met with other students and leaders at a school. But when comparing her education there are many differences! For her, the biggest difference between Thedford High School and her school at home, Gjovik High School, are the amount of people, the classes/subjects, the teachers, and almost everything. The school at home has approximately 1200 students, and 70 teachers. Every class last for 80 minutes, which means they only have four different classes a day. The first year (11th grade) students don’t get to choose their classes and the schedule is different every day. Henriette stated, " I feel that I have a better relationship with my teachers here in the U.S. than in Norway, because the school is smaller and it is therefore easier to talk to them. Right now I would have been in 12th grade, but when I go back I will still have one more year left before I graduate."
Not only was the educational system different for Henriette, but coming to Thedford was as well! "It is a lot smaller than the town I come from. I thought I came from a small town (population of about 28.000) before I got here, which proved me wrong! I didn’t like it at the beginning, but now I love it! I love that everyone knows each other, and everyone is friendly to one another. At home I usually hang out with my friends, boyfriend and family, and even though I don’t do any sport, I love to work out on my own. I also love living with my host family, the Haumann’s, they’re the best host family I could ever ask for!"
From a picture window in Norway all the way to the US of A, Ha en flott dag, Thedford!
